Oklahoma holds off Duke 4-3, sets up rematch with UConn for regional championship

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Grant Stevens pitched seven strong innings, Jason Walk drove in two runs and Oklahoma defeated Duke 4-3 on Sunday to advance to the championship round of the Norman Regional at the NCAA Tournament.

Oklahoma (39-20) advanced to play UConn on Sunday night. UConn, which beat Oklahoma 4-1 on Saturday, would advance to the super regionals with a win. An Oklahoma victory would set up a winner-take-all game on Monday.

Stevens (6-1) pitched seven innings, allowing one run on six hits with seven strikeouts and two walks. Malachi Witherspoon got the final five outs for his fifth save.

Duke took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on an RBI single by AJ Gracia.

In the Oklahoma second, Rocco Garza-Gongora singled up the middle for one run and Walk followed with a two-run triple to right center.

Oklahoma stretched its lead to 4-1 in the seventh when Easton Carmichael singled, advanced to second on a single by Jaxon Willits and scored when Michael Snyder singled to left and the runners advanced on a throwing error by the shortstop.

Gracia hit a one-out, two-run home run in the eighth to make it 4-3. The next batter, Alex Stone, singled to right but the next two batters flied out to end the inning.

The Blue Devils (40-20) went down in order in the ninth.

Fran Oschell III (0-3) took the loss after giving up the three runs in the second inning. ___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports